Mumbai's $1 billion home to host housewarming party -- did you get your invite yet?

Mukesh Ambani's Mumbai mansion. (Reuters)

For the past seven years, a behemoth structure has been rising over the city of Mumbai, while the city denizens below have been speculating just what exactly the building will hold. At long last a select guest list of about 200 people will reportedly get to enter the gilded gate of the $1 billion home of Mukesh Ambani on Nov. 28.

Named "Antilla" for the mystical island that supposedly housed the Seven Cities of Gold, the 27-story tower has 400,000 square feet of interior space, which is larger than the Palace of Versailles. Oh, yes, Ambani will live there with five family members. A few rumors about the place:

The lobby grants access to the home via nine elevators, and the elaborate crystal laden ballroom features a mount of LCD monitors, a huge sound system and a retractable showcase for artworks. (via Gizmodo)

Need to cool off after the stressful drive? Of course there's a swimming pool and yoga studio. Or, by some accounts, an ice room to escape the Mumbai heat, infused with manmade snow flurries. Then there's the mini-theater, three balconies with terrace gardens, the health club, spectacular views of the Arabian Sea (and the Mumbai slums). (via Los Angeles Times)

Along Altamount Road -- an address long favored by the city's rich and famous -- lies a feature rarer than a helipad or a six-story garage, a luxury almost unheard of in India's richest city: a front lawn covered with freshly laid sod. (via the Wall Street Journal)

Each season has its own set of floors so that one will know what season it is by checking which floor they're on. Considering the fact that Mumbai has precisely two seasons -- summer and monsoon -- and the building is 550 feet tall, this means the Ambani family will, at any point in time, have floors adding up to a height of only 275 feet to hang out in. (via MumbaiBoss)

With Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh urging business leaders to be "role models of moderation," critics say Ambani isn't doing himself any favors.(via the Daily News)

Two people look over one of the balconies at Ambani's mansion.(Danish Siddiqui/Reuters)

(Reuters)

The entrance to the Ambani home. (Indranil Mukherjee/AFP/Getty Images)

Other Mumbai living establishments in Dharavi, Asia's largest slum. (Gautam Singh/AP)

What amazes me most is that one would think such a large budget would have been spent on a sprawling countryside palace. Instead, Mr. Ambini has chosen to place a towering, Leggo-style eyesore smack dab in the middle of an already drab neighborhood. What reason, other than extreme vanity and narcissism, could there possibly be?

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